


Prince of Dawn

by coplins



Series: Twisted Mirror'Verse [3]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - College/University, BFFs, Charlie is obsessed, First Meetings, Friendship, Gen, Opposites Attract, Platonic Female/Male Relationships, Prequel, and very determined, platonic crush, squish
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-14
Updated: 2015-10-14
Packaged: 2018-04-26 10:28:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,542
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5001217
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/coplins/pseuds/coplins
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Charlie gets obsessed with the blond grumpy guy nobody seems to be able to get near. She is determined to make friends with him. </p>
<p>Charlie's POV of "The Girl with Gills".</p>
            </blockquote>





	Prince of Dawn

**Author's Note:**

> Unbetaed af. Hardly even proof read. Sorry about that.

It was love at first sight for Charlie. Not like she'd ever experienced it before. And she crushed on girls _all the time_. No, this was the kind of what-the-fuck-is-happening-to-me strange kind of obsessed I-need-this-person-in-my-life kind of love.

This was different on so many levels. Above all, because he was a guy. And he definitely didn't turn her on whatsoever.

She saw him one early morning when she was doing the walk of shame home. Dawn was painting everything pink and golden. Maybe that was the problem. Seriously. A guy comes running in a perfect effortless lope, painted pink, blond hair backlit like a halo, the rest of the world still soundly asleep. He's bound to stand out. _Nobody_ should look that tranquil and unbothered while keeping that speed. He was beautiful. So she blamed the rising sun for glorifying him for her. He ran past her without even noting her existence.

She thought about him all day. Wondering who he was. Why he was up at such ungodly hours. What he was like. She thought about him the day after too. Wondering how his laughter sounded, what he would feel like to hug. If he ever cosplayed and what his favourite comic books were if he had any. The third day she finally managed to put him out of her mind. Annoyed at herself for obsessing over a guy she'd only seen less than a minute had proceeded to take over two full days of her life.

The day after that she saw him again and it caused an excited little flutter. He sat cross legged on the grass on campus eating a sandwich, three sparrows sitting on his thigh. He fed each and one of them by hand, talking to them and smiling warmly. When the sandwich was finished he shooed them off gently, picked up a book and read, sometimes frowning and making a note in the margin. One of the sparrows kept coming back, picking with its beak in his hair and flying off again. He never even acknowledged it. 

When he put the book in his bag and started to rise Charlie realised with a jolt that she'd been standing in the middle of the walkway for her whole lunch break to watch him. Mortified she hurried inside and made it to her English lit class. A few minutes later _he_ walked in and took a seat to the left on the middle row.

"Who's that?" Charlie asked, surprised to see him there.

"That's Nick," Tamika who sat beside her answered dreamily.

"He's so hot. I dunno how many lessons I've sat through just staring at him," Mandy offered from Charlie's other side.

"He's a total dick though," Jacob said, turning around from the row in front of them to join the conversation.

"Nah, man. He ain't that bad," Ennis, sitting behind them chimed in. "He is, but he ain't if you get what I'm sayin'."

Charlie turned around. "Hand me my sign, cuz I totally don't get what you're saying,” she said. Jacob, the only one catching the Bill Engvall reference, snorted a laugh.

"We did a group assignment together in American history, aight? And the guy ain't much for talking. But he's wickedly smart and real bossy. He’s a perfectionist. T’was important to him that everything we handed in was perfect. Then Linda’s laptop broke―”

“Whoa. That story is true? That really happened? I thought somebody made that up when I heard about it,” Mandy broke in.

“Yeah. Hells yeah it’s true,” Ennis assured.

“What happened?” Charlie prompted.

“ _Bam_. He buys her a new one, out of the blue. Latest model. Said that he can’t have some technical malfunction prevent him from gettin’ the grades he deserves so she should stop mopin’ and get to work. Didn’t want money for it or anythin’.”

“Well it isn’t that fucking hard to give stuff away when you got money growing out of your ass.” Jacob clearly wasn’t impressed. “And he only did it for selfish reasons anyway.”

“Eyy. Don’t fault the guy for bein’ rich. Plus I ain’t seeing most rich kids doin’ stuff like that for others to push their own grades. He proof read all our shit, made notes in the margin what we needed to fix an’ shit. I’ve never gotten so good grades on anythin’ before cuz of the work he did. Personally, if someone cares to help me up my grades for selfish reasons without askin’ for anythin’ in return, I ain’t complainin’, aight?”

“Yeah, yeah. I get that. But guy’s got a major attitude problem, even you can admit to that. He’s arrogant and fucking rude as hell. Hell, you can see it from here. Just look at him!” Jacob waved in Nick’s direction. “Look how he’s sitting. Like the punk he is.” Jacob mimicked Nick’s position, slouching down in his chair splaying his legs wide. “He’s like, here’s my dick,” he grabbed his crotch to emphasis “and you can all suck on it.”

“Don’t mind if I do,” Mandy said with a grin looking at Nick―who was oblivious to being the center of discussion―then sharing a high five and a laugh with Tamika. Jacob shook his head and Ennis chuckled. After that the topic changed. Charlie felt a little better in noticing Nick since she wasn’t the only one.

* * *

Nick kept to himself, didn’t say much, and was oblivious to the attention he drew. That, or he didn’t care. He used breaks for reading and writing. For someone who studied so hard he didn’t seem stressed at all. He walked at a leisurely pace, more like, nonchalantly sauntered, like he owned the world. He expected people to get out of his way and so they did. Girls who tried to get his attention got a curt nod or an disinterested “Hi” tops for their effort. He had one set of expressions for human interaction and one for animal interaction. For humans he reserved smirks, sneers, boredom, disdain, confused squints and fed up expressions. For animals there were warm smiles, chuckles, and lively emotions crossing his face as he talked with them. 

Nick and animals were a chapter of its own. Birds would randomly land on him when he was outdoors, dogs would pull at their leashes to get to greet them, squirrels would eat out of his hands and even the shyest street cat would rub against his leg.

Charlie noticed him doing things others missed. Like how he’d pick up litter and throw it in the nearest garbage can, or when someone dropped something without noticing it he’d pick it up and either put it back in their pocket/bag without them noticing or hand it to them and quickly keep walking, not sticking around for the person to say thank you. He did a lot of small kind gestures people would never know about.

When faced with people being nasty to him he’d turn and walk away, only responding when that option was taken from him. In those cases he favoured stepping really close to his antagoniser with a superior smirk and say some calm remark, unsettling the opponent. He didn’t do it in the ‘come-at-me’ way but more like ‘come-on-to-me’ way which messed with straight boys’ minds. Charlie had never seen or heard about it come to actual blows.

A lot of girls found him hot. He had high cheekbones and a wide mouth with soft looking lips, wide shoulders, icy blue eyes and blond hair. He _did_ look kind of mean. His eyebrows were so pale you didn’t see them very well, his eyelids were heavy and his attitude amounted to him being quite intimidating at times just by being. It was like he was living in a world of his own. Serene and at ease until you came close. Then the drawbridge to his castle was pulled up, the gates closed, and the crocodiles were released into the moat. He was eerily unapproachable.

It wasn’t as if Charlie was stalking him or anything. She just happened to be where he was very often, watching him from a distance. Okay so she was kind of stalking him. She didn’t get the weird obsession she had with him she just really, _really_ wanted to know him. Have him as a friend. She hated that little nervous flip flop in her belly when she said hi to him and their eyes met. She hated it because she didn’t get why her pulse started racing. She tried to approach him to talk to him a couple of times but lost her nerve when she got close.

* * *

Charlie stood up at the LGTBQA meeting. “I may be having a sexuality crisis,” she said which got a lot of laughs out of her friends there. Charlie was known to be one of the most secure in her homosexuality and she did a good job out of supporting other people who were struggling with their own. She held up her hands and grinned sheepishly. “Yeah, I know. It’s funny. But you guys, I’m serious. I’m having a problem and I need your help. You see, there is this guy…” The group erupted in laughter again. They knew each other well by now and Charlie was not bothered by the laughter. She chuckled too.

“Damn, Charlie! Don’t tell us your rainbow is fading?” someone joked.

“Dude. So you’re bisexual, nothin’ wrong with wanting to bone a guy once in awhile,” someone else offered.

“Eww, gross. I don’t want to _bone_ him! That’d be weird. And gross. Mostly gross,” Charlie said making a face.

“So what’s the problem? Hey hey, give her a chance to explain,” Jody, a senior who led the meetings, said and quieted the group down.

“Okay. There is this guy in my English lit. And I, like, can’t stop thinking about him. I get all nervous when he’s around and I kinda follow him because I want to be close to him all the time. I want to talk to him but he’s kinda aloof so I lose my nerve when I try and you know I never have any problem talking to people unless I freak out and fangirl like that one time at a star trek convention when I bumped into William Shatner and actually it feels kinda like that. Like I’m fangirling. I really want to get to know this guy and, like, be his friend or whatever. Like, _really_ want it. I don’t want to be his girlfriend or kiss him or anything. Just hang out. I don’t get what’s wrong with me. If he was a girl I’d understand but I’m obsessing and I don’t know what to do.” Charlie took a deep breath after that rant and plopped back in her chair. She talked _a lot_ when she was nervous.

John, a guy that almost never offered an opinion or talked, spoke up. “Sounds to me like you have a squish.”

“A squish? What’s a squish?”

“It’s an aromantic crush. Just like a romantic crush but you want a platonic relationship instead. You don’t need to be aro to have one.”

“Oh.” Charlie thought about it while the others went into a discussion about squishes since it was the first time they’d heard the word too. Some had experienced it on different levels. Platonic infatuation. Charlie could get behind that. It felt better now she had a name for it.

* * *

She tried to make it go away. Avoided Nick when she could instead of following him around like a stalker. She missed him when she did. How could you miss someone you didn’t even know? It didn’t go away. As the semester wore on she watched him during class. He started sleeping in class. If he got woken up by the professor asking him anything he’d look at his clock and at the notes on his desk and give the correct answer, then go back to sleep. The chairs around him were empty more often than not. It was like he was living in a bubble of his own where nobody could get in.

As the feeling didn’t go away she decided to give it one last shot to get his attention. To not lose her nerve this time. If it failed it would fail miserably but then she could treat it like a crush that wasn’t reciprocated and let her broken heart heal. This was ridiculous anyway. 

Mid-November she finally mustered courage to approach him.

She fell into the chair next to him and nearly bounced. Nick ignored her and proceeded to write in the pad before him. “Hi! I’m Charlie! You know what I just realised today? I’ve never talked to you despite the fact that you are here every single lesson and almost the whole semester has passed. Isn’t that funny?” Charlie chattered, hoping she didn’t sound as desperate as she felt.

“Hilarious,” he deadpanned in an aloof tone of voice without pausing his writing.

“I just don’t understand why. I mean, you’re one of those who stand out,” she tried, going for flattery.

“I’ll just have to fly lower,” he answered, tone bored.

Charlie’s laughed. If he thought he was flying under the radar he really was oblivious to his own effect on the surrounding. It wasn’t like everybody knew who he was or anything. But even sitting quietly and keeping to himself he claimed space rather than blend into the background. “Dude. My radar is spherical, nothing eludes me,” she joked because it’d sound better than ‘ _I’ve been creepingly stalking you for months._ ’

“Except silence,” he deadpanned making her laugh again. She felt kinda giddy about talking to him. Even if he called her out on her babbling and tried to make her stop talking. But she was determined to cling on until he actually told her to fuck off. Plus, she did find his answers funny.

Nick rolled his head along his chest and against his shoulder to look at her with an unimpressed eyebrow raised. His eyes flicked over her taking her in. She thought that it was the first time he’d actually _looked_ at her.

"I know, I know. I talk a lot. It’s to hide that I have something to say,” she said a bit flustered. Then she went for cockiness to hide her embarrassment. “So are you gonna tell me your name? Or should I just assign you one?"

His lip quirk in a tiny smirk, a flicker of interest in his eyes. "It depends. What name would you assign me?" 

She leaned back doing a thinking pose, like she was stroking a beard. That one was easy though. She’d thought a lot about him already after all. "Hmm... I think, maybe... Draco. After Draco Malfoy."

His face went blank, he looked back at his paper and continued writing. "Sure. Pick one of the bad guys," he muttered. 

She made an indignant sound. "He's not one of the bad guys," she protested. "He's just misunderstood. Forced to take sides based on his parents expectations on him and under the threat to lose their love and all his friends if he associates with the wrong people or doesn't do what they tell him."

She saw him blink, like he hadn’t expected that answer, and tense up just a fraction. He was all about micro expressions apparently.

"I'm only seventeen," she offered, changing the subject, trying to find something that would make him pay attention to her again. "I'm a lot smarter than I look."

He snorted. "Not much of an achievement," he answered derisively. 

"I love to read. You do too, don't you, Draco?" she went on as if she hadn't heard the insult. She reconned he was only trying to get rid of her rather than aiming for hurt. 

"It's Nick."

_Result_! She may already know his name but now he’d given it himself so she was free to use it. "Nick. Right. I see you reading all the time. But English lit is boring. I expected it to be fun."

"It's because the professor hates his job and is very predictable. Now, Charlie, I don't mean to be rude," he said in a tone that made it clear that the opposite was in fact intended. "But I don’t sleep much at night and I intend to get some shut eye this lesson. I'd like to finish writing my notes before teach shows up if you don't mind."

"What? You write your notes _before_ the lesson?" Charlie asked bemusedly. 

"Yes. Like I said. Predictable."

"No way. Let me see that." Charlie snatched his notepad from him just as the professor walked in. Nick rolled his eyes, crossed his arms, and sunk deeper into the chair, legs splayed in that way that ticked off Jacob and a lot of other people. He closed his eyes and drifted off as the professor began the lesson. Charlie began to read and soon discovered that Nick had written―not quite to the letter, but close―exactly what the professor was saying up front. _Before the lesson_. It was spooky. It was awesome. She was blown away by it. Not only that, he had a beautiful handwriting. An easy-to-read flowing calligraphy that was more suited to greeting cards than class notes. She filled in the last parts of the notes where she had distracted him from finishing. When the lesson ended she was elated and excited and shook Nick awake. "Dude! That was soo awesome! You nailed it to the letter almost. I filled in the stuff you hadn't written. I think you must be the coolest person I've met since I came here! You're so coming with me for lunch. Come on!" Charlie beamed at him and stuffed his notepad into his messenger bag for him. She pulled him out of the chair. To her surprise Nick followed without protest, with a slightly bemused expression on his face. "That was some jedi mind trick or something. Do you do that every lesson?"

"No. Just his." Nick looked a bit confused and has the faintest blush on his cheeks. He watched her like he tried to figure out what she wanted. She keeps babbling to hide her nerves. Talking about school, books, whatever popped into her head. She took a tray each for them and put food on his too. He ate too little anyway. Not that she would have known that without her creepy stalking, but whatever. They sat down and she could see that he was listening even if he feigned disinterest and only answered in non-committal hums. She was pretty damn sure he just feigned anyway. "Star trek or star wars?" she asked. 

"Haven't seen either."

She jumped at the chance to try to force some more of his company before he grew tired of her chatter. "Dude, we got to fix that. My roommate is a bitch. Where do you live? I'm coming over tonight and we're gonna watch star wars on my laptop."

“Mbpf. I won’t be home until 7:30. But…” he gave her his dorm and room number and she felt the urge to fist pump in victory. She finished eating and waved goodbye before she fled, afraid that he’d change his mind if she stayed.

* * *

Charlie was excited and a bundle of nerves when she knocked at his door. She had mentally prepared for him telling her to go fuck herself, despite being given his address.

Nick opened dripping wet, clutching at the towel around his waist and scowling. He looked at her like he didn’t get what she was doing there. She was blown away by his body, lesbian or not. It made her want to draw, or sculpt him. His usual clothing showed that he had broad shoulders and was moderately fit but the reality was something else completely. He was _really_ fit. Not butch or anything, but sculpted.

"Damn! You look like one of those greek athlete statues. If I was straight― _boom,_ pregnant!" Charlie exclaimed and eyed him appreciatively. "I'm telling you Nick, you'd never guess _that_ is hiding under your clothes. You should totally wear tighter shirts. You’d have tons of girls throwing themselves at ya." They already did even if he seemed clueless to it.

He gave her a bored look. "Yes. Fighting off droves of mindless drones. Just what every guy dream of," he deadpanned dryly, but he was blushing rather prominently.

Charlie laughed. “Okay. You got a point. It would take away to fun of flirting,” she said and shouldered past him, still talking. “I’d ask if you live in the gym except I only ever see you studying so instead I wonder how the hell have you got _time_ to keep a body like that?” She dumped her laptop case and the plastic bag with snacks and beer she’d been carrying on top of his writing desk and spun around to gesture from his head to his toes while looking at him expectantly. He blushed even redder. 

“I run every morning, go to the gym on weekends and train Krav Maga every other day,” he answered. He looked kind of surprised, but she didn’t know why.

“Krav Maga? That’s, like, some Israelian _woooh yaaah, hooaa chow_...” Charlie said and made her best karate impression. Nick blinked. Then his face changed, amusement sparkling in his eyes. A little laugh bubbled up and seemed to take him by surprise. Then he doubled over laughing, clutching at his stomach and almost dropping the towel in the process. She had never seen him laugh like that, so unrestrained. Totally worth making a fool of herself for. It takes him a while to collect himself and when he did Charlie let her whole body droop mournfully. “I was wrong, I suppose, huh?”

He grinned widely, looking like he was about to start laughing again. His eyes were as warm as they were like when he looked at animals. Warmer even. He looked totally different. “Nope. That was quite correct. Krav Maga is an Israeli martial artform. Developed by the military. It just,... it doesn’t look _quite_ like that,” he answered her and closed the door. She perked up her posture and chuckled sheepishly. “Will you give me a moment to get dressed?” he asked her, making it sound more like he’s just informing her what he’s going to do.

“Yeah, yeah. Sure, chiselchest. I’ll set things up while you do. I only see one chair so we’ll have to sit on the bed. No worries. I brought beer and snacks by the way. Did you know…” She went on talking while he got clean clothes out of the wardrobe and went into the bathroom. She dumped the laptop on the bed, turning it on and opening up the movie so they could just hit play when he came back. She moved the plastic bag next to the bed and spotted an opened envelope on the desk. She didn’t mean to snoop but the name on it drew her attention and she picked it up. 

Nick came back wearing sweatpants and a tee. He was smiling until he saw what she was holding. “Is it a habit of yours to go through other people’s mail? It’s illegal you know?” he said, slightly annoyed.

“It is. But only emails, I swear. Didn’t look inside and it was lying in the open. No laws broken. Lucifer? Is that, like, an alias or something?” Charlie asked curiously as he snatched the from her hand with a frown.

“It’s my birth name. Nicholas is my middle name. Not that it’s any of your business,” he answered defensively and put away the letter in a desk drawer. 

“That’s so cool. That matches up with your weird habit of running in the morning.”

Luci scrunched up his face in puzzled annoyance. “What?”

“Oh, you know,” Charlie grinned and fanned out her hands to mimic the rising sun. “Prince of Dawn an’ all that jazz.” She thought of the first time she saw him. Painted in golden pink and haloed by the rising sun. “I’ve seen you run once when I was doing the walk of shame. It was just during sunup. No normal person should stir that early without getting paid. Do your friends call you Nick or Lucifer?”

Luci’s annoyance transformed into bemusement. “Luci they call me.”

“Luci. That’s awesome. Kinda contrasts with your appearance, but in a good way… or maybe not as much contrast when you think about it.” Charlie frowned thoughtfully as she considered it.

“My appearance,” he stated skeptically.

Charlie reanimated. “Yeah, you know. Like, super manly and zero fucks given? But that zero fucks given thing _does_ go well with Luci. As Luci sounds feminine and you’re not. Feminine. Like, _at all_. So it’s a cool combo.”

“Whatever you say. Don’t tell people Lucifer is my real name, okay?”

Charlie nodded. “My real name is Charlene,” she offered to put them on equal grounds. “I don’t like it. Makes me feel like I need to wear a pant suit and sensible shoes. But then again, I wear sneakers and that’s pretty sensible. Don’t tell anyone my name is Charlene and I won’t tell on you, deal?”

Lucifer squinted and tilted his head. “Do you have gills?”

That was an unexpected question out of the blue. It excited her a bit that he was interested enough to ask questions even if she didn’t know what he was thinking to ask such thing. Her mind automatically jumped to one of her old cosplay getups when she’d been a mermaid. “I do. But one is broken at the moment. I meant to get it fixed but I haven’t had time,” she explained as she went to his bed and put the pillows up against the wall for them to lean on. She took a six pack of beers out of the plastic bag. “Or technically, I’ve had time. I’ve just prioritized everything else instead, you know? There’s only so much time and I have used them once already. I was planning to remake them and use them for another costume, but… Why? Do you need them?” She turned around and handed him an opened beer while looking curiously at him.

He blinked, then chuckled and shook his head. 

“So why’d you ask if I have gills?”

His lips twitched like he was about to laugh again, eyes full of mirth, and looked down on the beer in his hand, grinning. “It seemed like a rational conclusion at the moment. But now I wonder _why_ you have gills?”

“Cosplay of course. Now come on.” She climbed onto the bed and patted the space beside her before putting the laptop on her knees. “Let's get this show on the road.” She thought his ‘rational conclusion’ was another of his jedi mind tricks.

He took a swig of the beer and sat down next to her and she hit play. Their sides touched. Nick, no, _Luci_ she reminded herself, relaxed after a couple of minutes and he was a whole other person than he was in public then. He made dry remarks and sarcastic comments. He often joked on his own expense and didn’t pull away when she leaned against him a bit. He didn’t flirt with her which was a relief, just was as fun to hang out with as she had imagined. Better even. They crawled under the blanket after a bathroom break. It was warm and cosy and so was he. 

She didn’t realise she had fallen asleep until an incessant beeping woke her up. “ _Uuurgh_... Whatever making that noise, kill it.” Charlie sat up and blinked blearily. Luci laid with his head by her feet, her laptop was plugged in to load on his desk, the noise came from an alarm clock. Luci shut it off and looked at her passively. “Dude. This is legit the first time I’ve ever woke up next to a guy. What are you doing down there?”

“I didn’t want to force unwanted intimacy on you without knowing if you were okay with it but I don’t have a couch and I refuse to sleep in a chair.”

She smiled sleepily at him. 99% of the time she was up for cuddles with anyone she liked, male or female. She would have been more than fine with him sleeping next to her, holding her. But it made her happy that he hadn’t wanted to take advantage. “Aww. You’re a gentleman.”

“Really. I’m not,” he said dryly making a face that said ‘you-have-no-idea-what-you’re-talking-about’.

“Yes you are. You’re sweet. I like you. I’m gonna keep you. What time is it?”

Luci snorted skeptically. “5 AM.”

She fell back with a groan. “Why the hell are we awake at 5 AM?”

“I’m going for a run.”

“No you’re not. We’re gonna sleep in. Come up here. Can you spoon me please? Your blanket is so thin. But don’t get any ideas. I’m so gay I fart rainbows.”

Luci chuckled and hesitated for a while. Awkwardly he then switched position to lay beside her. He arranged a pillow comfortably then edged closer to her on his side. She felt him shift a little closer. Then again. Then yet a little closer, like he didn’t know how close he was allowed to lie. “Oh my god, Luci. Stop pussyfooting.” She reached around, grabbed his arm and tugged him close, slotting herself into the mould of his body. It was perfect. Really friggin weird too, lying like that with a guy. But awesome, because it was him. 

“Don’t wiggle too much. If I’ve got a boner when we wake up, it’s your own fucking fault,” he said in warning.

Charlie laughed and wiggled a little, making Luci scoff, before settling in. She felt at home in his arms. She was definitely going to keep him.

* * *

Charlie loved Luci more than anything. How that came to be she couldn't tell. It had her ruminating for hours about love and the different aspects of love there was. She had never had a family, or, depending on how you looked at it, she had had many families. They just didn't keep her for very long. She had liked them all, but she was difficult apparently. She had many many friends, always did, flitting from person to person, group to group, never really getting close. But with Luci she found a stability she hadn't had before. He was something between a brother and a best friend. A partner. He was hard to get to know. But bit by bit he opened up. She was shocked to find how insecure he was. His self-confidence regarding personal relationships was laughable or tragic. Both. As frightened as she'd been to approach him, he was with everybody. He didn’t tell her that outright of course. It was something she discovered by reading between the lines.

When he told her about his past, in bits and pieces, she understood _why_ at least. All those thing that made him spectacular and unique to her, put a huge target on his back for many people. Like his name for an instance. Seriously. How could parents not let their three year olds play with another three year old because of a name? His intelligence and integrity made him old beyond his years in his way of thinking. That had caused some serious bullying since he didn’t bend to popular opinions. He’d been a rebellious punk in school while at the same time acing his grades. His rebellious attitude had drawn the wrong people to him, thinking he held values he didn’t. He was however truly oblivious to the attention from the right people. It was like their attention didn’t really stick. He didn’t believe it was real so he filtered it away. The problem was that the right kind of people (unlike Charlie) respected his appearance of wanting to be left alone when their friendly overtures were rebuffed. The only way to truly become his friend was to not take no for an answer and not get snippy when he snarked at you.

Luci’s zero fucks given was a facade. He gave a ton of fucks. He was loyal, sweet, and caring in a way most people never got to see. Or if they saw it, they missed it since it was hidden behind a blasé and arrogant attitude. Not everybody. Some looked right through Luci’s defenses and judged him by his actions. Ennis was one of them. He started seeking Luci and Charlie out for lunch, study with them after school, or hung with them at parties. Luci would go through all his college years without understanding that he had a friend in Ennis. It was funny because Ennis would go through _his_ college years never understanding that Luci was oblivious to their friendship. Because they were friends. Acted the part. Luci just thought Ennis was Charlie’s friend, but enjoyed the company all the same. Since it all amounted to the same it was okay. Ennis wasn’t the only one. Charlie acted as the door opener, the crack in his armour, for those who sought to get to know Luci.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

> Comments are precious little jewels. ^^


End file.
